The Cleveland Health-Tech Corridor said it has teamed up with JumpStart Inc. to launch a $2 million investment and attraction fund to provide financial capital for businesses willing to move to the corridor district that links downtown and University Circle.

The American Cancer Society has handed out $3.84 million in grants to Maryland cancer researchers at the University of Maryland, Johns Hopkins University and the National Cancer Institute for a range of investigations.

Digital health technology leader WellDoc® has expanded its leadership team with two new C-level executives and a key executive director. Healthcare finance veteran Jeff Lehrfeld has joined the company from Magellan Health as Chief Financial Officer (CFO), and senior marketing executive Tara Charvat, MBA, is the company’s new Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), joining from Valeritas. In addition, Christina Hedge is the new Executive Director, Market Access, reporting to Nick Harsh, Vice President, Market Access, who came to WellDoc this Spring.

Last week, Great Britain voted to leave the European Union of 28 member states, or “Brexit.” Since the result was announced sterling has fallen to a 31-year low, there has been a record daily drop in  global equity markets and political turmoil has broken out as the UK Prime Minister has said he will step down and the majority of the leadership team of the official opposition party has resigned.

NEA Parnter Sara Nayeem will speak on a panel at the Orphan Drugs and Rare Diseases Conference on Tuesday, June 28, 2016 at Westin Copely Place Boston in Boston, MA. Dr. Nayeem will participate in the panel entitled, Funding Early Opportunities in Orphan and Rare Disease Space: What To Look Out For?

Gaithersburg-based Emergent BioSolutions will manufacture one of the first potential vaccines to fight the Zika virus, it announced Monday.

Under a federal contract, Emergent (NYSE: EBS) will develop and manufacture the vaccine for the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), which is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Emergent will develop the vaccine material from a base created by an undisclosed private company, university or institution and provided by BARDA, officials said.

Awards season in the Baltimore tech scene moved into summer mode at the American Visionary Art Museum last week, where the Maryland Incubator Company of the Year Awards were handed out.

Baltimore incubators were well represented, with companies from the Emerging Technology Centers, Betamore and Johns Hopkins FastForward picking up honors.

John F. Kennedy introduced himself to the American electorate through his book Profiles in Courage presenting stories of public officials daring to confront ill conceived movements that sweep the country from time to time. They did so while being vilified by the press and many had their careers destroyed. While history shows they were correct, that was little solace at the time. Here’s how the publisher summarized Kennedy’s theme: “Courage, the courage to do what a person rightfully should do, despite the personal consequences, was a trait of character shared by them all.”

As carpenters finished an elegantly crafted deck near Greenmount Avenue and Oliver Street, I had a thought:

Where is the "gritty Greenmount" described in news articles a few years ago?

Montgomery County is participating in an important regional initiative called the Global Cities Initiative aimed at helping our businesses export and connecting our local economy with the global market.

Nationally, this initiative is led by JP Morgan and the Brookings Institution. In the National Capital Region, it is a collaborative effort between the Greater Washington Board of Trade, the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, and the Consortium of Universities of the Washington Metropolitan Area and numerous other regional partners.

The Brexit votes have been counted. The Brits have decided to leave the European Union. And the financial markets are taking it hard. Right now, futures on the London stock exchange are down 8%. The pound is down 9.8 percent, more than double its previous record decline of 4.1 percent. We’re living in interesting times.

Throughout the United States, innovation districts have been proposed with varying degrees of emphasis on inclusivity and opportunity. In January 2016, a public-private partnership representing many of Baltimore’s most influential anchor institutions, community-based organizations, and private companies declared their intent to develop an innovation district in West Baltimore dubbed the “Innovation Village.”  This week, the Innovation Village steering committee announced several initiatives aimed at supporting inclusive economic growth in West Baltimore neighborhoods including free Wi-Fi, entrepreneurial assistance programs, and the development of a food hub.

Thousand Oaks-based biotech giant Amgen has put its backing behind a new, life sciences incubator, called QB3@953. According to Amgen, it will provide a five year, platinum sponsorship of the San Francisco life sciences incubator, to accelerate the development of new therapies to improve human health. Financial details of the sponsorship were not detailed. As part of that sponsorship, Amgen said it will be providing two awards each year with a company receiving one year of lab space at QB3@953, in addition to connections to Amgen's executives and other resources. QB3@953 provides lab space to life sciences startups, which Amgen says is a "key obstacle" for life sciences startups. A similar effort, the Ventura BioCenter, operates just around the corner from Amgen in the Thousand Oaks area.

What is success? Is it the amount of money you have in your bank account, at any given point? Is it that feeling you get after delivering a killer presentation, or even a pretty decent bar joke? Or is it something bigger—something wholly unnamable, undefinable, immeasurable, and totally subjective?

Kitchology, a food+wellness+tech startup headquartered in Germantown, was among the winners of this year's Maryland Incubator Company of the Year (ICOY) Awards, winning in the consumer product category.

QIAGEN N.V. (Nasdaq: QGEN) announced the successful completion of the conditional, voluntary public tender offer for the shares in Exiqon A/S, a world leader in RNA technology. The extended Offer Period expired yesterday, on 22 June 2016, at 23.59 (CET).

Another week, another new initiative for IBM Watson Health.

Wednesday, IBM announced the formation of a Watson Health medical imaging collaborative, seeking to make “cognitive imaging” a routine part of medical practice in oncology, neurology, diabetes care, eye care, cardiovascular disease and other image-heavy specialties.  “Imaging is one of the things that spans across many different areas,” said Anne Le Grand, IBM Watson Health’s vice president of imaging.

Between June 2015 and June 2016, we’ve created more spaces and places for people to engage with the Science Center; honed and expanded our programs to support innovation and entrepreneurship; and enhanced the way we talk about our role in Greater Philadelphia’s innovation ecosystem.

Join us for a thrilling evening of start-up pitches from multiple sectors in healthcare including: Services, Health IT, Biotechnology, Medical Devices and Diagnostics. Applications are still being accepted, so if you not afraid of getting nipped by one of our judges, send your information to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The University System of Maryland is hoping a new $25 million venture capital fund it established will help spin off more commercial businesses — with the system reaping the benefits in the long run.

Qiagen and CosmosID have joined the Metagenomics and Metadesign of Subways and Urban Biomes (MetaSUB) consortium, an international five-year effort led by Weill Cornell Medicine, to map the genomes and epigenomes of microbial communities in 54 cities in 32 countries.

The first proposed test of CRISPR gene-editing technology in human beings is being funded by Internet billionaire Sean Parker, MIT Technology Review has learned.

The novel cancer treatment, initially disclosed last week, is being reviewed Tuesday by a federal advisory panel in Washington, D.C., and could become the first clinical trial involving CRISPR, the red-hot gene modification technology.

Innovation Village, an effort to spur economic development in West Baltimore, is partnering with Howard County's Conscious Venture Lab to help develop fledgling companies and entrepreneurs.

When David R. Tabatadze’s small biotechnology venture ran out of money in 2013, he almost gave up on it.

He went to pharmaceutical companies and “angel” investors, those individuals willing to put modest amounts of money into new businesses. None were interested in funding his research into potential genetic medicines.

Emergent BioSolutions Inc. (NYSE:EBS) today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted for review Emergent’s supplemental Biologics License Application (sBLA) seeking approval of the manufacture of BioThrax® (Anthrax Vaccine Adsorbed) in Building 55, the company’s large-scale manufacturing facility. FDA has set a Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) target action date of August 15, 2016.

Imagine the workplace during flu season. Some people get sick and display clear symptoms—a warning sign to coworkers to avoid contact and for that individual to stay home. Others are infected, but never or only belatedly exhibit the tell-tale signs of sickness, meaning they can infect coworkers without knowing it. If healthcare professionals had the ability to test in advance whether a person is likely to spread a disease following infection, they could recommend specific measures to treat the person or limit exposure and perhaps keep an outbreak from growing into an epidemic or pandemic.

The UK biotechnology sector continues to build on the success of previous years, raising an unprecedented £900m on the London Stock Exchange in 2015 and recording the highest level of venture finance in recent years, according to the latest report Money, momentum and maturity: UK biotech financing and deals in 2015/16 compiled by the UK BioIndustry Association (BIA) in partnership with Evaluate and the London Stock Exchange.

As cities continue to invest more in smart city technologies, questions surrounding how to staff those moves can puzzle city leaders.

Martin O’Malley, the former mayor of Baltimore and governor of Maryland, suggested during remarks at the Smart Cities Innovation Summit that during his leadership — both at the city and state levels — having a chief innovation officer close to the executive was key to driving government away from the status quo and into new possibilities.

Emergent BioSolutions Inc. is a global specialty pharmaceutical company, which offers specialized products to governments and healthcare providers. The company derives most of its revenue from one product, BioThrax, which is the only FDA-licensed vaccine for the prevention of anthrax disease. In 2015, about 56% of the company's revenue came from the sale of BioThrax with the remainder coming from the sale of their other biodefense products, biosciences products, and contract manufacturing.

Personal Genome Diagnostics Inc. (PGDx), a provider of advanced cancer genome testing products and services, today announced that co-founders Luis Diaz, MD, and Victor Velculescu, MD, PhD, have won the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2016 Award in the Maryland region.

Alexandria Real Estate Equities, the owner and developer of the Alexandria Center for Life Science on the East Side of Manhattan, has just launched an incubator space for biotech start-ups.

The new life science laboratory and office platform, which will be called Alexandria Launchlabs, promises 15,000 s/f of space that provides “the necessary resources and collaborative environment to start transforming novel ideas into innovative, early-stage companies that develop products to improve human health.”

Join us for a thrilling evening of start-up pitches from multiple sectors in healthcare including: Services, Health IT, Biotechnology, Medical Devices and Diagnostics. Applications are still being accepted, so if you not afraid of getting nipped by one of our judges, send your information to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

POSITION TITLE: Chief Executive Officer

REPORTING TO: Board of Directors

THE COMPANY: TEDCO (Maryland Technology Development Corporation)

"The economic contribution to the Maryland economy of TEDCO’s five core research, technology transfer, and commercialization programs totaled almost $1 billion in 2015, generating a total of 4,358 jobs" – Battelle Technology Partnership Practice, Report on Economic Impacts of TEDCO

TEDCO was created by the Maryland State Legislature in 1998 to facilitate the transfer and commercialization of technology from Maryland’s research universities and federal labs into the marketplace and to assist in the creation and growth of technology-based businesses in all regions of the State. TEDCO is an independent organization that strives to be Maryland’s lead source for entrepreneurial business assistance and seed funding for the development of start-up companies in Maryland’s innovation economy. In Maryland and beyond, TEDCO is a resource of mentoring, funding and networking for entrepreneurs and start-ups that need guidance as they bring innovative concepts to market. TEDCO is more than an early stage funding resource. It is the hub of Maryland’s entrepreneurial network where start-ups find mentors, organizational assistance, facilities for daily operations, and a roadmap for success.

Global epidemics are outrunning globally accessible containment and cures. There are now more ways to spread diseases worldwide than safe, effective ways to counter them. Biomedical stakeholders are engaged in finding solutions. Now rumored recommendations pending at a UN High Level Panel may make matters worse. Appointed by outgoing Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, the Panel is said to be preparing to release its examination of world  “Access to Medicines”.  Amazingly it is rumored to be encouraging international flouting of U.S. Bayh-Dole-based patent protection and producer pricing prerogatives. This inevitably will undermine our nation’s life science innovation ecosystem, effectively destroying world hopes for effective response to evolving epidemics.

The approval of Professor Patrick O’Shea’s selection by UCC’s governing body is the first external appointment to the role in 50 years.

Most of his academic career has been at University of Maryland and elsewhere in the US, but he stays in touch with the Irish higher education system. The UCC physics graduate is a director of the Wild Geese Network of Irish Scientists, and he hosted University College Dublin president Andrew Deeks earlier this year.